Woman Commits Money Laundering, gets Jail

Karina Kostromina a female from Latvia has been charged with conducting money-laundering operations in a complex global criminal suit against a gang in Eastern Europe, which employed malicious software for stealing huge money, out of the accounts of British banks, published Zdnet.co.uk dated October 4, 2011.

Proved as guilty, judges at Croydon Crown Court (Croydon, UK) punished Kostromina with a 2-year prison sentence owing to the role she played within the e-crime that yielded a few million pounds.

A worldwide police investigation under the banner, Operation Lath, engaging Central e-Crime Unit of UK's Metropolitan Police and USA's Federal Bureau of Investigation, when launched, enabled to catch the gang whose fraud consisted mainly of computer hacking as well as money laundering.

Further, Kostromina's husband, Yevhen Kulibaba (33) and from Ukraine was the key player in the gang.

The gang, Police revealed, utilized the Zeus computer-Trojan for contaminating the PCs of people having accounts in banks, for committing Internet deception.

The Trojan managed in seizing account numbers, usernames and passwords following which funds were stolen as well as transferred to numerous accounts that were under regulation by the group. Almost 3m pounds were grabbed from the HSBC, Lloyds TSB and Barclays UK banks.

In fact, the gangsters tried to filch no less than 4.3m pounds, a Spokesman of the Metropolitan Police stated. BB.co.uk published this on October 4, 2011.

Chief of PCeU (Metropolitan Police's Central e-Crime Unit) Charlie McMurdie said that the crime group from Eastern Europe was quite sophisticated as it harvested financial data worldwide that it moved via British accounts. Zdnet.co.uk reported this.

Also Mark Bryant-Heron, to facilitate prosecution, stated that the fraud was a well-maneuvered, refined, properly-arranged and highly-lucrative activity for the beneficiaries, who targeted the British banking sector as also more particularly, breached the Internet bank accounts' security. Metro.co.uk published this on October 4, 2011.

Meanwhile, Colin Wetherill Detective Inspector of the Metropolitan Police stated that efforts were on for lessening the harm the above activities caused, for scaring those thinking about carrying out the conspiracies as also for booking the criminals to justice. Guardian-series.co.uk published this on October 4, 2011.